Missing Event key photos and photo count

Question

This is a question regarding the Library Events folder with the list of all events. I have approximately 560 events and 24,000 photos. The problem is with only 32 events within a date rangeof  four months from Feb thru June of this year that contained 41 events. 9 of the events scattered throughout that date range work normally. I can't identify a common denominator for either of the groups that work or those that don't. I can't think of any difference in the way I imported them or any other reason why some within that range don't work properly and some do. For some reason the last 8 events over the last 6 weeks have worked perfectly. I'm pretty sure the problematic events had shown perfectly for a while and that suddenly one day this situation started even for some events that already had been working fine.
The problem with the 32 events is two key characteristics, there is not a key photo for the event whether one is assigned specifically or one chosen by the program - just a generic black and white ghost image icon with a palm tree and sunset. The other issue is when hovering over the event icon and when it would usually list the number of photos within the event - in these 32 groups it shows only 0 (zero) but when I go into the event all of the photos are there - whether it's 1 photo or 100. I am able to assign titles to the events as normal.
Here are some things I have been told but have no idea as to the accuracy and thought I would put this question out to the experts before I did anything. One thing I had been told that was that iPhoto isn't equipped to hold this large a number of photos and to switch to Aperture but today I read something within Apple that says Aperture uses the same library as iPhoto.
Someone else had mentioned reindexing the library but I'm not sure whether to attempt that and what that means. I read in another forum and it was unclear if that would be a suitable course of action for me but that was a question someone posed regarding an ios device so it really wouldn't apply to me directly:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5123493?start=0&tstart=0
It occurs to me as I write this that perhaps I could just export these events of photos and then re-import them again.
I'm sorry this is so long. I'm trying to be thorough. After years of looking through forums for answers to questions that have boggled my mind - this is the first time I've ever posted a question. Please be gentle. Thanks!
Technical Information:
MacBook Pro Mid-2009
500GB ~ 200GB free
Hard drive replaced by Apple 6/17/13
OSX 10.8.4
iPhoto 11  v9.4.3
560 Events
24,000 photos (approx)

Answer 1

Here are some things I have been told but have no idea as to the accuracy and thought I would put this question out to the experts before I did anything. One thing I had been told that was that iPhoto isn't equipped to hold this large a number of photos and to switch to Aperture but today I read something within Apple that says Aperture uses the same library as iPhoto.
That is as you note incorrect - the current versions of iPhoto and Aperture do use the same exact library structure and can open and modify each other's libraries - the current limitation on an iPhoto library is !,000,000 photos (I have not personally verified that)
It occurs to me as I write this that perhaps I could just export these events of photos and then re-import them again.
No - that would not improve anything and would lose data
What you need to do it backup your iPHoto library, depress the option and command keys, launch iPhoto and rebuild your thrumbnails - which may take several tries - if this does not resolve things rebuild the library
LN